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Brit gets death in Bali verdict

Michael Bachelard

BRITISH drug smuggler Lindsay Sandiford has been condemned to death by firing squad for smuggling 4.8 kilograms of cocaine into Bali last year.

The sentence, handed down late on Tuesday, shocked Sandiford, 56, her lawyers and onlookers, because prosecutors had asked only for a 15-year jail sentence, and because her four co-accused were all let off with much lighter penalties.

Sandiford said nothing when the verdict was handed down, but was seen later huddled in the rear of her court cell.

She will now join the Bali Nine smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan on death row in Kerobokan jail.

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Sandiford said she had smuggled the drugs only because one of her co-accused, Julian Ponder, had threatened to kill her son.

She helped police by allowing them to watch her deliver the drugs, and leading them to four co-accused.

But I Gusti Agung Bagus Wijaya Adi, one member of the three-judge panel at the Denpasar District Court, said there were ''aggravating circumstances'' justifying the death penalty. Sandiford had refused to admit that the cocaine had belonged to her (she said it belonged to Ponder), she had given ''twisted and convoluted testimony'', and had shown no remorse, he said.

When the chief judge, Amser Simanjuntak, read out the death penalty, Sandiford looked directly at him, but looked as though she was holding back tears.